Social mobility

Policy areas

Social mobility involves a change in your class (e.g. from working class to middle class) or your income (e.g. from the lowest income quartile to the highest). In recent years, UK governments have become convinced that Britain is a 'closed shop society' in which there is little movement between social classes or income bands, and they think things are getting worse. The Coalition government's social mobility 'Tsar', Alan Milburn, told Radio 4, 'In this country, if you're born poor, you die poor.'

Statements like this are outrageous (80% of people born in households below the poverty line escape poverty when they reach adulthood). Yet such claims are rarely challenged, for most academics, politicians and journalists assume that social background shapes people's life chances much more than their talent or hard work. In my work, I show that Britain is a remarkably open, meritocratic society, and that the key factors influencing where we end up are our ability and motivation, not social origins.

MAIN PUBLICATIONS

MEDIA SELECTION

TALKS & DEBATES

2012: Social Mobility Delusions (published by Civitas) shows politicians are wrong to say Britain is bottom of the international mobility rankings. Nor is mobility declining, nor are bright poor kids falling behind dull rich kids at school Download